Spoilers and discussion of uncomfortable topics ahead, you have been warned:)
Well, Finished is an overstatement as half of the book was utterly unreadable.
This book was recommended by the entire of “mystery book internet” and I was very excited to read a critically acclaimed thriller detective story. What I got was an edgy teenager’s emo fantasy.
Every single edgy trope possible was shoved into this book – self harm (which, as a person who has experience with this, was romanticized and almost fetishized in this book, at least in my opinion), gore, drug and alcohol abuse, minor sexualization (extremely disgusting), rare mental illness, and extreme violence among schoolchildren. In a thriller, especially a small town mystery, these are to be expected of course to some extent, but in this book, it felt as if the author made a checklist of every trope she had to shove in. It’s shocking for the sake of being shocking, and not for the sake of storytelling, which is the cheap slasher movie approach to storytelling.
The book is supposed to tell the story of a journalist reluctantly collecting material for an article. Instead of this, we get a thirty year old woman’s entire sexual history, which has 0 to do with the plot, her partying with literal children and doing hard drugs with them, and bitter rants about every single person that is unfortunate enough to live in this godforsaken town.
Another point is the protagonist’s family – the twist is that they’re insane – okay, great, but there are not many signs to point in that direction (or any direction really, there is literally 0 leads before the last 10 – 15 pages). The mother starts off as a normal wine mom, that tries to keep up her image in a small community, and until the very ending of the book she acts somewhat okay – she isn’t the best mom, obviously, but not outright evil for most of the book. I don’t mean she should have been revealed earlier, but I believe the a good thriller should give subtle clues in the right direction. For example, there could have been more interactions with her where she was acting strange towards other, maybe memories of how she treated Camille badly throughout her childhood. But of course, Camille’s intimate life is somehow more important, because readers who pick up a thriller obviously prefer to read about masturbation for a whole page than to try and solve the mystery with the protagonist. I feel filthy after reading this book, and I’m not one to be ashamed by topics of sexual activity. I am indeed, grossed out by sexualization of young children and vivid descriptions of their bodies that doesn’t add anything except for nausea.
All in all, don’t read this book. It’s extremely disappointing, and mostly gory for the sake of being edgy, sexualizes every living breathing being, and shits out the conclusion out of nowhere. Have a great day friends.
by Relative-Flan2207
5 Comments
Glad someone agrees, I also found this book unreadable and I really liked both Gone Girl and Dark Places, both of which are actual thrillers with an actual plot/twist. Dark Places has some of the tropes you mention, but not just shoved in for shock value. Sharp Objects was her first book so maybe she was just warming up?
I really loved this show and wanted to read this because the show leaves a lot left out that apparently the book answers, but I guess I’ll just skip it since I already know those spoilers anyway.
I legit can’t stand her writing. It’s just so bad.
This novel is almost 20 years old, so the reason it got such positive reviews at the time was because it actually was fresh at the time. Since, a lot of authors have attempted to emulate her work and, accordingly, have turned those themes into cliches over the last 20 years. She’s easily one of the most influential suspense authors during this period.
I think even Gone Girl would read a little bit tropey in 2023 if you’ve read many novels in that style over the last decade.
I mostly agree with you on SO. I read it because, I was very disappointed with the mini-series. (It’s mostly because it felt like they took a 2hr movie and stretch it out to 8 episodes)
I thought the book would be better but seems like the same problems I had with the show were here too. A lot of that came from that fact that so much of the book lean on shock factor, that didn’t have any depth to it. All the characters felt very one note for me and I couldn’t really connect with Camille and her relationship with Adora and Amma.
Also, the biggest problem I had with the book was the very rushed ending and the reveal with Amma didn’t really work for me. I kinda wish Flynn had structure the book into two different section. First half is in Wind Gap and second is in Chicago with Camille and Amma trying to settle into their ‘new lives’. I’ll still probably give Dark Places, a read though, since SO, was only her debut and she could have gotten better.